Rebuilding Leafs ‘not going to be easy,’ Burke says

A red carpet had not been rolled out, a marching band was not hired and there was not a halo hovering just above Air Canada Centre on Saturday afternoon. But the Toronto Maple Leafs would-be saviour had arrived just the same.

TORONTO — A red carpet had not been rolled out, a marching band was not hired and there was not a halo hovering just above Air Canada Centre on Saturday afternoon. But the Toronto Maple Leafs would-be saviour had arrived just the same.

Brian Burke, the new president and general manager of the storied franchise at the centre of a hockey-mad market, in a city that has not celebrated a Stanley Cup championship in 41 years — and counting — was holding court at his introductory media conference just inside the main gate to the ACC.

Burke talked about the Leafs job in near holy terms, saying Toronto was the Vatican of hockey cities — if one is a Catholic — and that running the team was “one of the most important jobs in hockey on the planet.”

Burke praised Cliff Fletcher, the Leafs’ caretaker in the GM’s job ever since John Ferguson was fired last January, and said how happy he was to be working with his old friend and Toronto’s current head coach, Ron Wilson.

Burke said every player on the roster and person in the front office would have a chance to prove themselves in the coming weeks, and that there would be an evaluation process, and that the trades and seismic shifts to the Leafs’ roster that many are predicting were not in his immediate plans.

Toronto’s new hockey czar also spoke some plain and simple truths about the task ahead of him.

“Rebuilding this team is not going to be easy,” said Burke, who signed a six-year, $18-million US deal with the Leafs. “Changing the general manager doesn’t change the team. It is going to take some time and some patience. Changing the general manager does not change the roster we are going to dress tonight. It doesn’t change the record of our team and it doesn’t change the chapters of history with unfulfilled expectations that preceded today.

“What it does represent is the turning of the page.”

Toronto is in desperate need of a blank slate. Burke’s Leafs entered Saturday’s contest with Philadelphia with a 7-9-6 mark, on a five-game losing streak and with just three victories in 12 games in November. The Leafs sat 11th in the Eastern Conference, and are a long way from being considered a legitimate Cup contender.

Burke has been brought in to build a winner. And the new president and GM spelled out his hockey philosophy, and painted a picture of what the Leafs are supposed to look like.

“We believe in a top-six forward group that has a high skill level,” Burke said. “We believe in a bottom six forward group that does the plumbers work, does all the specialty jobs — shot-blocking, penalty-killing, fighting, we fill those roles with our bottom six forwards.

“Same with our defencemen: the top-four group with a high skill level, the bottom two do the plumbers work, which are really important jobs with my team. We build our teams from the net out.”

There will be no such thing as an untouchable player on the Burke Leafs. The 53-year-old will not be handing out no-trade clauses, which were an epidemic in the Ferguson era. Mats Sundin, Tomas Kaberle, Pavel Kubina, Darcy Tucker and Bryan McCabe all had them in their contracts. But only Kaberle and Kubina remain with the Leafs, and Burke did not single either out for special praise when he spoke of the players on the roster that may have a bright future under his regime.

“I think (Niklas) Hagman is really having a strong year,” Burke said. “(Mikhail) Grabovski is having a good year, and some of the hardworking guys — and (Luke) Schenn sure looks like a keeper.”

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